Aphrodite yelped, clawing ass over head to get away from him. The engineer’s hatch called to her. Xexis bellowed, but he was surrounded. Aphrodite was on her own.
“Tell him to get to Xnasis! Tell him to save Kinsi!” Aphrodite yelled, hoping if he didn’t hear her that Buddy could at least tell him. As she pried the door to the engineer’s hatch, tossing herself down the ladder, she called out. “Tell him this is my hunt and that is his!”
Buddy’s text filled her data pad but she didn’t have time to read it. Danny was already scrambling down the ladder. Buddy zapped him with electricity but the dead protection personnel swatted him away like a fly.
Aphrodite stood on the perforated metal bridge that ran the length of the ship, ducking under a massive pipe and backing up slowly as Danny’s boots hit the metal with a heavy thud. “Now, now, what’s an engineer going to do without all her fancy tech?”
A loud clatter disoriented her as she tripped and stumbled backward over tools on the bridge. Danny snickered, stalking towards her. However, Aphrodite recognized the weight of the crowbar as she grabbed onto something around her.
Some designs are just universal.
Wrapping her fingers around it, fury pumping through her veins, she crawled backwards on her elbows and feet. Danny loomed over her. “Aphrodite Kerso, oh how I’ve waited to kill you.”
“I have to ask,” she blurted out, steadying the thumping of her heart. “Can you remember who your victim was? Before they died? When you’re in there, you have to, right? Because you knew how to be Max, kind of? I mean it’s not replacement of the real thing.”
She needed time. The ship was in S.O.S. mode, which meant it was calling other ships toward it. Someone else would likely pick up the signal. Other victims would be baited much like she was with the first ship.
How fucking clever…The whole reason she was in this mess was a ship flashing S.O.S.
“There are still some connections, yes. We can gather surface personality and thoughts, the last few moments. Though, that all depends on the damage done to the vessel prior to our feeding on it.” Danny crouched down before her. “Which is how I will trick your mate into coming to you, following the sounds of your screams for help. I’ll know exactly what to say moments before I carve him open and spit a new cell into him.”
“So, you have cellular breeding; you simply apply a new cell into a new host, like spider putting their young in to a victim for them to eat their way out of. That’s…cool?” Aphrodite wasn’t the biology person but she remembered that from school. She slid further, finding Danny amused by her movements.Good, fall for the trap.“Xexis got that ship out of a quadrant it wasn’t supposed to be in, but he didn’t kill all those people on it, the original humans on that ship. You all did that, didn’t you?”
“An experiment. They dropped us into the vents of the ship, watched us eat through the crew till they tore each other apart. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry, we never stop.” He lulled his head to the side and her heart stopped.
“Who? Who dropped you into the vents?”
But Danny didn’t answer, just smirked, wild and carnivorous, as he slithered closer. He dropped onto his hands and feet, his speed concerning as he bound up and over her.
She thrust a finger up, panic shaking her down to the bone.Please, fuck, please, I need more time.“One! One more question! Why me?”
Aphrodite watched the wicked glee crawl on Danny’s face as he closed the space between them.Just…about…there.“Thanks to you, we were saved before the others burned the ship. You and yourmating huntsaved us from extermination. We reanimated your dead friends! Just long enough until we fed through all their bones and organic matter.”
He leered at her, unknowing he was in the strike zone.
“It’s too bad about the weakened bones then.” She exhaled.
“What?” Danny barely got another sound out as she arched her arm out and wacked him upside the head at max velocity with the crowbar. Danny was tossed to the side as Aphrodite crawled to her feet.Turn off the S.O.S.They couldn’t afford anyone else to catch the signal. She needed to get to the command deck.Aphrodite raced, limping as pain shot up her right shin into her hips, for the front of the ship. Danny’s snarls like a wild beast followed her, his hands and boots thudding against the metal. She ducked and whirled around sharp corners of the bridge. Past red, dim lights illuminating panels within the ship. If she weren’t being chased by a homicidal zombie, she might stop to stare in awe at the design and infrastructure of the ship.
Her body thrummed as the pain dulled. The adrenaline washed it from her consciousness for a short while. Aphrodite could taste the command deck she was so close. Only a pair of hands grabbed her by the shoulders and wheeled her around. Her skull hit a crystal-encased panel first before she toppled to the ground. Keeping one mission in her spinning mind, Aphrodite clutched that crowbar as hard as she could. Before Danny could pounce on her, she swung. Again, and again, once or twice she hit something, a few she didn’t. But she shoved herself across the grate, clawing into her armor with its sharp grit. Aphrodite gasped for air, struggling to get up onto her feet.
When she was finally standing, she faced Danny taking up the entire bridge inches away from the engineer’s ladder up into the command deck. He panted heavily as yellow foam oozed from his ripped open mouth. Blood shot eyes stared back at her as the infection fully devoured him.
Aphrodite’s world spun, her body wobbling left and right. She saw three Danny’s then two then three again. Blood dribbled down her temple and soaked into her already damp hair. For a moment, and for no reason other than habit, her eyes darted to her data pad. Buddy’s text filled the screen.
The skull is most brittle at the base…right where my light cannon is.
Aphrodite grinned, teeth coated in blood and grime as she peered up at the raging Danny. Woozily, she pointed the crowbar at his head.
Danny, unlike the others once they’d gone past the point of no return snarled. “That’s no gun, silly engineer.”
“No…but the real Danny would know to always look for my drone. I’m known for giving him upgrades.” And like pulling the trigger, Aphrodite made a ‘pew’ sound and cocked back the crowbar. Danny’s face melted as a massive hole was blown through the back of it and out the center of his forehead.
Aphrodite collapsed against the railing of the bridge, the crowbar clanging against the metal as she used it as a crutch. Buddy bobbed over the crumpled corpse toward Aphrodite.
He filled her screen.
Aphrodite Kerso is damaged but not infected. You need extensive care. There is hemorrhaging to the cranium and fractures in your legs. Plus, there are bizarre scans coming from your torso.
